One Sabbath morning, a Christian Science Sunday School pupil, her small face radiant, said, "I know why we sing hymns." "Why?" asked her teacher. "We are praising God and thanking Him because He is so good," was the answer.
The singing in Christian Science churches and Sunday schools should always be a joyous, spontaneous outpouring of praise and gratitude to the Giver of all good, and never a mere ritualistic formality or custom. In Psalms we are admonished: "Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. . . . Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name." Singing songs of praise and gratitude was one of the earliest forms of worship.
Praise and thanksgiving should not, however, be reserved only for church services. They form the background of a true Christian Scientist's thinking at all times and under all circumstances. Praise, gratitude, and joy walk hand-in-hand to usher in demonstration. Healing may be delayed until these qualities are active to a marked degree in the consciousness of the one seeking help, for to the extent that one is unhappy, discouraged, ungrateful, one is not recognizing the presence and power of God, good. The importance of genuine gratitude cannot be overemphasized. We rarely study a Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly which does not contain citations from the Psalms, the Bible's songs of praise. The word "rejoice" and its derivatives have been used in the Bible many hundred times, according to one authority.
